Land Acknowledgement

Oregon State University recognizes the impact that its land grant history had on Indigenous communities

Oregon State University recognizes the impact that its land grant history had on Indigenous communities in Oregon. Through the Morrill Act of 1862, which established land grant universities in the United States, the federal government seized nearly 11 million acres of land from 250 sovereign tribal nations, with little or no compensation.

In 1868, the state legislature designated Corvallis College as Oregon’s land grant institution. Soon after, Oregon received 90,000 acres of federal lands — taken from the Klamath, Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw and Coquille people — to be sold to create an endowment supporting the growth of the new college, which would become Oregon State University.

The OSU Portland Center area rests on traditional homelands of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes. These and other indigenous tribes have created communities to harvest and enjoy the plentiful natural resources of the area for the last 11,000 years.

Oregon State University accepts its responsibility for understanding the continuing impact of that history on these communities. OSU and the OSU Portland Center are committed — in the spirit of self-reflection, learning, reconciliation, and partnership — to ensure that this institution will be of enduring benefit, not only to the state of Oregon, but also to the people on whose ancestral lands it is now located.

 

BUY NATIVE GUIDE:  These companies are from Portland business owners that identify as Native American and/or Indigenous.